Selling to the Council

About our procurement strategy

Our procurement strategy sets out our approach to the
use of competition and how it will procure works, goods and services. We have
long been committed to open competition for the purchasing of supplies and
large scale works in order to achieve cost-effective procurement and avoid
allegations of corruption or favouritism. This has helped to achieve national
recognition as a value for money organisation.

We
also contract with a number of local and national voluntary organisations. Our
preferred approach is to use contractual agreements which clarify the role and
responsibilities of each party as opposed to a grant model. As a rule, we use
competitive procurement as the method of selecting voluntary sector providers
to deliver services on its behalf and, in many instances, they are awarded
contracts after competition with private sector providers. In other instances,
it may be necessary to negotiate agreement outside a competitive framework
because the voluntary sector organisation is the only suitable provider.